Thursday, March 27, 2014

Watercolor Sugar Skulls

So I have been seeing manis everywhere of people making stamping decals with jelly type polishes or the new OPI Sheer Tints that just look amazing. They look like watercolor paintings on your nails. I was about two seconds from buying the Sheer Tints when someone said they would just make their own if they wanted them. This seriously intrigued me and I had to try making my own too.

I started off with just my thumb because I had no confidence that I could get it to work. I have just barely got the hang of stamping decals so I felt like this was a little beyond my reach. To my shock it worked like a charm and I had created I think my favorite nail of all time!

The technique I used to create the sheer tints was to put down a large drop of top coat onto a nail plate and then mix it with a tiny dot of any polish color you want. Then you just have to mix it up and paint it inside your image. I just used an OPI topcoat I had sitting around that wasn't being loved and that I got for free. Yeah, I will end up using all of it now!! You could use any topcoat though. To mix and apply the polish to the image on the stamper I just used a dotting tool.

So with the sweet taste of success I went on to the other nails and created what I think just may be my favorite mani of all time!! If not my favorite easily top three. I used the same sugar skull on all my nails that came from Cheeky jumbo plate Viva Mexico.

This mani was a great way to test out a bunch of polish I haven't tried yet and the list is super long so bare with me!! There are a few in here that I have used like Cult Nails Tempest as my base but the majority were untried. Polishes used are: Pop Beauty Mint Magic, China Glaze What a Pansy, Grass is Lime Greener, Metro Pollen-tin, Zoya Yummy, Pippa, and Darcy, OPI Hey Baby, Color Club London Calling and Pardon My French, Cult Nails Party Time and Sinful Shine Mardis Gras and 24/7. I think that is all but my desk is literally covered in polish so sorry if I missed one!